Apparatuses and methods for treating neurological and/or neuropsychiatric disorders are by application of thermal energy to the patient's forehead region, for example, by maintaining a target temperature or temperature range to the forehead of a patient for a time period. In particular, described herein are regional brain cooling mechanisms to treat neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and autism.

Methods, systems and devices for reducing anxiety, including increasing relaxation and/or calm. In some variations these methods may include reducing anxiety, increase relaxation and/or calm by non-invasive temperature regulation of the frontal cortex prior to and/or during sleep. The subject may have an anxiety disorder, or may not have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

A thermal control unit for controlling a patient's temperature includes a fluid outlet for delivering temperature-controlled fluid to a patient, a pump, a heat exchanger, and a controller that automatically pauses thermal treatment of the patient prior the patient reaching a target temperature. During the pause, the controller assesses a reaction of the patient and changes a temperature of the fluid only inside the thermal control unit if the patient is likely to reach the target temperature without further thermal treatment. However, if the patient is unlikely to reach the target temperature without further thermal treatment, the controller restarts the thermal treatment. The controller may pause thermal treatment again prior to reaching the target temperature and assess the patient's reaction. In some embodiments, the controller may selectively include and exclude a fluid reservoir in a circulation channel within the thermal control unit.

The invention provides fluid warming apparatus comprising: a fan; a heater, the fan and the heater being configured to generate a heated fluid flow having a principle flow direction and an inhomogeneous temperature distribution in a distribution direction perpendicular to the said principle flow direction; and a plurality of temperature sensors offset from each other in the said distribution direction, wherein at least two of the temperature sensors are configured to measure temperatures of respective portions of the heated fluid flow having different temperatures.

An itch relieving device is disclosed, including a shell, a heating element, a first touch sensing module, a control module and a gear input module. The first touch sensing module is configured for touching a human body to generate a human body sensing signal, the control module is electrically connected with the heating element to control the heating element to be switched on or off according to the human body sensing signal, the gear input module is configured for acquiring a control action to generate a pulse signal, the control module is provided with a storage unit, the control module is electrically connected with the gear input module to change a heating gear according to the pulse signal, the control module records the current heating gear through the storage unit, and the control module controls a heating power of the heating element according to the current heating gear.

A non-invasive thermal therapy for the eye dynamically maintains a treatment temperature at the working tip of the instrument. Methods described herein pre-heat the instruments serving to reduce instrument setup time, increase battery life, reduce the weight of the handheld device, and reduce total procedure time. Related apparatuses are also described.

A patient temperature control system for automated temperature control according to a programmed protocol. In one aspect, at least one programmed protocol may be established for each of a plurality of patient thermal therapy phases. In turn, the temperature of a thermal exchange medium may be controlled upon the programmed protocol during each of the phases. A plurality of programmed protocols may be established, wherein a selected protocol may be utilized for automated temperature control during patient thermal therapy. The protocol may include a target patient temperature and/or a set duration for one or more of the phase of thermal therapy. The protocol may be user-definable and modifiable during therapy. In a multiphase configuration, automatic termination and initiation of successive phases may be selectively established by a user, based on target patient temperature data and/or set duration data on a phase-specific basis.

Relatively non-invasive devices and methods for heating or cooling a patient's body are disclosed. Devices and methods for treating ischemic conditions by inducing therapeutic hypothermia are disclosed. Devices and methods for inducing therapeutic hypothermia through esophageal cooling are disclosed. Devices and methods for operative temperature management are disclosed.

A targeted temperature management (TTM) system is disclosed that includes a TTM module to provide a TTM fluid, a fluid delivery line (FDL) including a FDL hub, a fluid delivery lumen and a fluid return lumen, and a pad to facilitate thermal energy transfer between the TTM fluid and a patient, the pad including a fluid delivery conduit extending away from the pad portion and including a first leak prevention valve configured to enable the TTM fluid to flow in a distal direction while preventing flow in a proximal direction, and a fluid return conduit extending away from the pad portion, the fluid return conduit including (i) a return conduit connector at a proximal end thereof, and (ii) a second leak prevention valve configured to enable the TTM fluid to flow in the proximal direction while preventing flow in the distal direction.

An intravenous heat exchange catheter and/or an external cooling pad/bladder can be used to maintain hypothermia in, e.g., a cardiac arrest patient, but to accelerate the cooling process the patient first can be infused with cold saline before the opportunity arises to connect the catheter or pad to the patient.